Marvel Legacies

My intent with drawing this piece was to spotlight some characters that were underrepresented in comics. I focused on ethnicities and genders that aren't usually given the same love as our male friends, especially those who are of European descent. It allowed me to challenge myself yet again and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

One thing I realized while drawing this piece is that I've never drawn a Korean person. I've never drawn someone who is Muslim or Native American. I rarely draw Latino characters and I almost never draw anyone who is Black or of African descent. I want to change that. Everyone else can draw and will continue to draw male European characters. That's the status quo and it's an easy thing to do in this day and age. I believe I have an obligation to bring something to the table that has yet to be seen, or at least support things that don't get the support they need in my community, in real life and in comics. I'm not tryin to do anything easy anymore. "Be the change you want to see." My career has taken me on the path to this journey.

The Marvels

I have enjoyed the discussions about Ms. Marvel's new costume (on the right) and honestly, it's probably the most classic image I have ever seen in this modern age.  Generally when a characters costume is changed, it's very gimmicky and lacks any substance but this change is so different and at the same time very majestic, it does the character honor.

The other character I don't know much about, but I do know her name is Sharon Ventura and she use to go by the Ms. Marvel title. Doing a little research helped me to find out that she use to be the She-Thing as well.  I never understood that character , but it lead to an interesting bunch of stories in the Fantastic Four comic.

I've done a great deal of learning this past year.  This is the original inked drawing that was done and I realized I needed to change the composition. This image alone was fine, but was too static.  Bringing them both closer to the viewer felt more immediate and imposing so I made the changes for the color version. 

The New Avengers

One thing i will always love about Marvel Comics is how much they try and relate to the average man on the street.  This team is a team that pretty much has proven themselves and got to break away from hat the typical Avengers were doing and were able to handle NYC and anything else that may need super hero assistance.... plus we actually got to enjoy seeing Heroes during their day to day too. Stuart Immonem's art didn't hurt either ;-)

The colors on this were a departure from my norm and instead of doing them myself as usual, I reached out to Danielle Alexis St. Pierre who has her beautiful art at http://dalexisstpierre.deviantart.com/ .  She knocked these colors out for me and it's been a hit over on deviant art for me=] i wish I was as good as she=]

I have always been fan of the Avengers. I started collecting them in the 90's but quickly became a fan of the older comics. I think it all came from my love for the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe trade paperbacks.  I had all 8 volumes and even the death volume.  All of the coolest characters and even the villains were from the Avengers books so I had to learn more about them.

The Avengers comic is now a book I can't do without.  As much as I am a Spider-man fan (notice he's in the closest in the foreground)  The Avengers are right there with him.  Brian Michael Bendis is in my opinion the best writer for continuing such cool stories for the most diverse amount of characters ever seen in Marvel Comics. I plan on drawing more characters and making this a much bigger grouping that I will end up inking and coloring.  Who would you like to see included in this mix?=]

and yes, this definitely was inspired by the new movie coming out=]